strantor

So, these things can be built? What does that involve?

I'm not sure yet. looks like at least a big expensive variac, industrial transformer, expensive high power switching silicon devices, some tubing, lots of time for trial and error, and I'm assuming lots of money to recoup from the errors.

No the level of technological sophistication. Running a coal forge in a masterful way requires lots of practice and discipline "spear" though it is a very flexible and simple system. Induction heating requires less skill it is easier to use and in most cases faster "M16" though it is useless with out power.

Oh ok, gotcha. Thanks for the explanation.
Yeah, I'm not tossing out my coal forge any time soon. My kids will have to figure out what to do with it when I die.
IF I build this thing, it would be more for the satisfaction of building it anyways. And then the further satisfaction of using something that I made to make more things. I'm not too worried about monthy cost to run it because I probably wouldn't run it that much. I just like to confirm that what I'm about to do isn't a giant waste of time because in the end its less efficient than the tried & true methods already in place. Like when I made ethanol in my garage; what a waste of time and money.

I can tell you that in my operation, I was using around $300 per month in propane and now using induction exclusively, my electric bill has gone up about $35 to $50 per month.

Thanks! That's what I was hoping to hear.

Its kind like the difference between a M16 and a spear

I'm a little confused by your analogy. What are you comparing to a spear and what are you comparing to a m16?
are you saying that an induction heater is overkill?

Hello,
I was here a few years ago, with a short-lived hobby of bladesmithing. I have been toying around with electrons since then, and electronics might be bringing me back around to bladesmithing. I have taken an interest in induction heaters, in part from the youtube videos posted by imsoother (who I find is on this forum). I am considering making one, but I want to know how cost effective it is (the forging, not the forge). I was using a coal forge before (still have the forge and the coal) - and I figured there has to be someone on this forum who's used a coal forge and an induction forge and made comparison in dollars for KWH VS. lbs of coal.
looking for perspective, thanks
-charlie

I like the handle, is there a spacer between the wood and the brass? if so, what is it?

I have this huge bolt that fell out of a railroad bridge and today I decided to pound it into a blade. During the first heat, it got this weird yellow pollen looking crust on the outside. I didn't think it was galvanized because it was all rusty and i've never seen anything else used in the rail industry be galvanized. Is that what galvanized looks like when you heat it?

I have used a car charge to etch for over a year now, works great.

I use a different solution for electrolyte that works well,

1 Cup of HOT water
3 Tbsp Table Salt
1/2 Cup White vinegar
1 drop DAWN dish soap (yes, it really should be DAWN)

mix it up well and allow it to cool

then I use a chunk of Stainless wrapped in cheap felt from wally world, the felt is only good for a couple etchs then it needs to be changed out

I had stencils made by Ernie Gropstitch

WOW! your etch looks way better than mine! is that due mainly to the solution, the stencil, or felt& stainless thing? probably a combination of all 3. How does a stencil allow you to have the floating centers of letters like "O" or "A" or "D"?

it seems really a deep etch (good point in my view). how long did you let it "on"?

about 2 min

looks nice man! I'll have to try making a fillet knife.

I got some old crusty knifemaking VHS cassette from my uncle a couple years back (I think it was by loveless) and in the video he uses some kind of electro etching thing with steel wool and a stencil. I've seen similar devices for sale on the internet for $120-500+ and was contemplating getting one, but as always, talked myself out of it, convinced that I could find some other way to do it for cheaper. I went to walmart and got a $27 6 amp max car battery charger and some votive candles. I melted the candles in a pineapple can on my stove and dipped my knife into it a few times, then scratched "JP" (as one letter, my cousin's initials, the knife is for him) into the wax with a mechanical pencil. I hooked the red lead up to the knife and the black lead to some steel wool and dabbed it over the initials like i remember seeing in the video, no luck. I tried adding some water into the mix, no luck. I got smart and figured it would be better if it were salt water like and electrolyte solution so i tried salt water, limited luck. I was getting frustated and I decided to dip the sucker into the salt water with the black lead submerged at the bottom. This worked alot better, kinda like backwards electroplating and within a couple minutes I got a cup full of nasty looking xxxx and a pretty sweet engraving. The engraving is not precise and i wouldn't try this on something I intended to sell because you can't really control it, it does what it wants to. It fits this spike knife though I think. Tell me what you think!

Very nice! I think epoxy would be a good idea if you intend to use it due to fluids getting inside and causing rust, but I have a rust phobia. I have seen mammoth bone and mammoth tooth for sale on the internet and I have been wondering: Is it REAL bone from a REAL mammoth that is eons old, reclaimed from the earth? This seems counterintuitive. How much usable bone could be recovered from a single mammoth? and how ordinary is it to run across a mammoth skeleton? it seems easier and cheaper to obtain mammoth bone than ivory, and elephants still walk the earth!

What is a shuriken??:confused:

a throwing star

very nice. I have never worked with damascus; when you make a damascus blade, do you run into problems with (say, during sharpening) where one metal wears away quicker and you end up with ridges rather than a smooth surface?

Yikes!!!
Now atsa knoife!

Beautiful work Sam. Why can't I shake the image of some prosecutor holding that up in a gallon ziplock bag in a courtroom somewhere?

HAHA! that's great. It looks pretty scary! I like it.

MetalMuncher said:

Any time strantor. Graham is great dude, always there to help. Might I ask how you cut your leaf springs up? Might I suggest hot cutting? That was a big issue for me when I started up, was just how do you cut something so xxxxxxx tough? God bless! And make some more vids when you get the kinks worked out!

 

I've never tried hot cutting, because I've only ever seen it done on an anvil with a hardie tool. I have a railroad track for an anvil so no hardie tools. I guess if I got somebody to hold the hot spring with the tongs I could hold my hatchet on there and hit the hatchet with a hammer. It's worth a try and would save me alot of acetylene because I currently use a torch to cut em up.

 

I assumed you have been here a bit as your membership is shown as beginning in Oct 2008.

Yeah that is a little decieving, but I explained the anomaly my previous posthttp://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f14/my-first-finished-leaf-spring-knife-9713/

Thanks TarAlderion and MetalMuncher! I think you two have taught me about as much as I have the capacity to learn right now lol. Seriously, if I have learned anything from coming to this site (other than the things you guys have taught me), it is that I don't know jack about what i'm doing. My processes were seriously flawed and you guys set me straight. I will take what you have said and apply it and inform you of my results. I know that you can't learn everything about anything and I'm far from knowing alot about knifesmithing so I'm sure I will screw something up again and have more questions. I am greatly appreciative of your help.

I don't want to be a kill joy, but gasoline to start the fire? burning up the blade with sparks all over?

Just like I told Sabre, go back to basic's, read some of the posts, read the stickly's for knife making here, they say everything you need to get started, learn some basic smithing basic's and safety, before you try another knife. You are going to get hurt, and not only yourself.

If you spent half as much time reading here at IFI as you have making U tube videos you could be a good smith. Forget showing off for a while, Knives are not toys.

Thanks for your concern. I just learned of Iforgeiron.com the day before yesterday and since coming to the site I have learned tenfold what I knew before and since being previously scolded for using gasoline I have been told a new trick for lighting my forge. My intent for the youtube videos is not to show off. When you put yourself on video on the internet, you open yourself to the criticism of others (like yours) which can only help you. Some people go out of their way to call you an idiot, other post helpful information and everyone has a different perspective. It helps me out alot since I don't know anybody who does any type of metalwork so there is nobody there to look over my shoulder and tell me how & why i'm screwing up. I have the youtube crowd to do that for me. Like in the case of this kukri knife; if I hadn't been recording it, it would have snapped and I would never have known why. I could have described the problem in this forum, but a picture is worth a thousand words and a video is worth a thousand pictures. Thanks for the input!


P.S. I thought about it some and you have a good point. I kinda know what i'm doing now, so I should forget the camera for a while and just get some experience under my belt.

Ok, now I realize that I didn't just have my terms confused, I actually didn't know what tempering really meant. Thanks TarAlderion! I get it now, and I went out and had a second look at the crack and you are absolutely right, the grains are huge! I guess I doomed that knife from the start. I never normalized & never tempered it & quenched way too hot. I guess I'll be changing up the way I do things now. Thanks everybody, this was really helpful!

well all you did was harden it- not temper in atf.

Yeah I get my terms mixed up sometimes, sorry about that.

i dissagree with how ya lit the forge(accelerent) and your atire- be more wise and careful-be a good example.

Yeah you're right, it doesn't seem very safe to me either, but how else do you light coal? I'm not being a smart *ss, I really would like to know a safer way to get that stuff lit because copious amounts of gasoline has been the only successful thing for me so far.


Thanks!

Wow! I had no idea that 60 grit scratches would effect it. good to to know. I'll use a magnet next time. Thanks for the help!

First thing, when your drawing out the temper in the spine, you dont bring it up to red color. bring the spine to a blue color with a fine tip on your torch, then let it cool down in the air and repeat two more times.

OK, I didn't know that. I guess that's problem #1

Next, if your blade split during the tempering it was caused by a fracture that developed during the hardening quench, most likely from a scratch or pit missed during the grinding

Do you reccomend polishing the blade before quenching to make sure all the scratches & pits are gone? It was full of 60 grit scratches because that is what I used to shape it and I never went higher than 60 grit.

plus it looked like you may have overheated the blade befor you dipped it in the oil which would make for a weak, coarse grain structure and could have contributed to the break as well. If your unsure about hardening temp I would recomend getting yourself a magnet. When the steel loses its magnatism let it raise another 50 degrees or so and quench.

What color should the metal be when it is 50 degrees past non magnetic? I thought about doing it while it was red but then waited till it was orange-yellow to quench it.

. Keep trying, your design looks great

Thanks!

Hey everybody, I am here today to report a most grievous failure on my part. I have been working on leaf spring kukri knife for the past couple of days. I quenched it today and then annealed the back, after which the blade split. I have posted a video on youtube so that you can see exactly what I did. here is the link: YouTube - Making the Leaf Spring Kukri Knife, Part2 (FAIL) please help!

Hello everybody, I have been a member here for a little while but I don't remember initially signing up. I just happened upon this site today and thought "Oh, cool I'll sign up" and then found that I already had a login. weird. ok, well, I'll just pretend like this is my first time here (to try to maintain the illusion of sanity ) and introduce myself. I'm charlie and I have been making knives for a few months now in my spare time. I have been posting videos of me making my knives on youtube under the alias "strantor" (incidentally, that was the name I used here also). I figured I would throw up some pics of my work. The spike knife was my first knife ever and the huge leaf spring bowie is my latest (the bowie is my 1st leaf spring knife and my 5th knife total). OK, well I'll see yall around I guess!

Are those typical RR spikes? They seem longer than usual. I could never get a blade that long with a handle that long when I tried. They look great BTW!